Blacklidge

Thanksgiving 2011

Had a nice holiday this year. No cooking, no stress. We had a mini vacation to Phoenix, almost a "stay-cation" since it's only a couple of hours from home. First for some grub, we went to the Scottsdale Plaza for their brunch. Nice place, nice spread. Stuffed. Now, on to our final destination for the night, the Arizona Biltmore. No, we didn't find a pot of money somewhere, we had a free nights stay due to a talent contest my husband won last Christmas. Beautiful place, it's been there since the twenties and there are pictures all over of the famous people who have stayed there over the years. When it was built there was absolutely nothing around it for miles in any direction. Now, it is closed in with extravagant homes and fancy places. Anyway, we had a peaceful night and headed out in the morning for the Museum of Musical Instruments. This is a world class museum that has been getting lots of press since it opened and there were lots of visitors there.

Sunset from the Wrigley Mansion, right up the hill from the Biltmore.

Sprites, two of many in the gardens of the hotel.

At the museum, one of many scary details included along with audio and video and actual instruments.

See all of the pictures we took in the album at the right of the screen.

Weird Things Found in Luggage at Airports

Via: X Ray Technician

Traveltalks on YouTube

One of a series of travelogues from long ago. Pretty cool!

Grand Canyon Ravens in Flight

While we were at the Grand Canyon, we noticed the ravens that live there, having a great time. They flew all along the rim and out over the canyon, usually in pairs, and just enjoying life. In fact, I've never seen any other animals with less stress and more capacity for having fun, except maybe a Labrador-ian. Every stop we made had some resident ravens, and they are glorious in their shiny, black feathers. For the one with all the tourists in it, double click to see the birds.

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More photos of the Grand Canyon

 These are early morning shots, when it was very cold.

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Mary Colter-Architect of the Grand Canyon

While in the area of Grand Canyon, I got to see some buildings created by a famous architect of the early twentieth century. The Santa Fe Railroad began bringing tourists out West to enjoy the glories of the Grand Canyon. Once there, tourists needed places to stay, to eat, to rest, and shop. Mary Colter was a female architect at a time when women were unknown to the profession, and she had the audacity to try and build structures along the rim of one of nature's greatest spectacles. Using local stones, and Native American themes and builders, Colter created buildings that stand today as the first examples of what would become known as "National Park Service Rustic." Colter used Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Mexican motifs. Some of her work, including the interiors, is now being preserved and restored. There's La Posada Hotel in Winslow, where rooms are named for old time movie stars, including the Clark Gable Sleeping Quarters and the Carole Lombard Room (Lombard said to have spent her last night there). My favorite site was the Watchtower at the Grand Canyon. On the inside of this building was a souvenir shop, which is what it was built for, and then the tower that everyone could climb up to see the view.  One of the cool things about it was the wall painting, and the ceiling art. Such details make it spectacular. It is said that every rock that was placed was superivised by the architect herself. I'm sure the men working on it loved that, knowing men as I do. Anyway, here are some of my shots and some of this information I took from an NPR article.  

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Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

trip

On my first trip to Colorado in almost ten years, I got lucky every step of the way. I moved away from Denver, after 35 years, in 1996.  Arizona seemed like a good place to go and so I've been here every since.

Last week a family member needed some help to move from the western slope to the eastern slope. Ten years of stocking up a big house did nothing for ease of packing this year.  So after driving for fourteen hours and a good night's sleep, we bounded out of bed and commenced to loading this big, long truck. It was a beautiful fall day in Meeker, the wind mildly blowing.

After lugging furniture and boxes up and down stairs all day, we finally fell back into bed. In the morning, just a few more hours of work and we were on our way. Another great day to be in Colorado was happening all around us and although we weren't bounding quite as much as the day before, it promised to be an exquisite drive.

Look on the map, Meeker is in the northwest part of the state. Our destination, Rocky Ford is in the southeast part.  The drive takes us through the high mountain regions of Beaver Creek, Vail and Leadville. From there, down the spine of the state to Buena Vista & Salida, following the line of mountains known as the Collegiate Range. There is no prettier drive in the autumn, but with a twenty four foot truck, hauling a flat bed trailer loaded with another truck, in a caravan with two other vehicles along, well you get the picture. That's about how far we got during the daylight hours.

Turning toward Pueblo, the sun went down and the road got a whole lot more windy. On we went, over hill and dale. Just another one hundred and fifty miles or so and we'd be home free!  Hey, now this is a vacation! You may be wondering how I figured I got lucky, every step of the way?

Well, think about it. November, high mountains, long drive. Where was the snow? Where was the ice? Why wasn't there more traffic on a nice Friday? Yeah, many things could have been amiss, but none of them were! See? Lucky! And we made it, late Friday. Got a room, finished our project and headed home the next day . A complete round trip, no muss, no fuss. Barely a chiropractor's visit worth of trouble!

That's it, the trip!